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Why Singtel users are seeing red

Singtel is trying its best to salvage its brand since a user complaint went viral on Facebook. The telco has since introduced a Facebook app to allow Singtel users to report outages in their network.

Yet Singtel users are still complaining about the telco's bad 3G coverage.

Why are Singtel users seeing red?

The biggest contributor would be its false reasoning in explaining why they need to reduce the 3G data cap.

When Singtel announced that it was reducing the 3G data cap, it said in their Facebook Post, " The tiered price plans allow a more balanced and fair data distribution, ensuring that everyone enjoys a faster and better mobile experience".

Yet, in its recent post to cool hot tempers, Singtel now says "We are adding more than 100 new base station sites islandwide before the end of this year to boost capacity and further enhance coverage."

This doesn't make sense. If the reduced data cap was meant to ensure everyone enjoys a faster and better mobile experience, why does Singtel now have to ensure everyone that they are adding 100 new base station?

To the consumer, the reduced data cap has done nothing to ensure everyone enjoys a faster and better mobile experience. The only reason to reduce data cap is to make more money.

This was clearly explained in Singapore Business Review.

"SingTel’s decision to cut data caps for smartphones is a big step toward better data monetisation opportunities for Singapore telcos," said an analyst from Maybank Kim Eng.

"Over time however, it will encourage more data usage, especially on the video front, and this should lead users to adopt LTE as well as upgrade their plans, thus benefiting the telcos’ data revenue and margins."

Singtel in May 2012 have admitted themselves that their 3G network is slow.

Wrote Reuters, "Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, Southeast Asia's biggest telecoms firm, on Thursday acknowledged mobile Internet speeds in the city-state are slow and said it is introducing plans that offer more reliable connections."

Such plans included reducing data cap.

In the same article, a telco researcher has highlighted that the main reason why Singtel 3G retardation is due to users access, or lack of it, to international sites.


"Seventy percent of content Singapore users access is offshore - some people would put it at 90 percent - and that is equivalent to an eight-lane highway leading onto a one-lane highway," Sullivan said.


As such, adding 100 base stations in Singapore will not be much of improvement for Singtel 3G users.

More good years to slow bandwidth.

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